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“The Pulpit King: The Passion and Eloquence of Gardner Taylor, a Legend among Preachers”

Gilbreath, Edward

Christianity Today, 11 December 1995

pp. 25 - 28

p. 25 Gardner Taylor is characterized by Edward Gilbreath as being like the great Charles Spurgeon, who once said that a preacher has to be willing to put not just hard work, but “heart work” into preaching. “He must feel as if he could preach his very life away before the sermon is done.” P. 27: Taylor’s such a good preacher and reader that people sometimes applaud just from hearing him read a text. Richard Lischer says that ‘on one occasion as [Taylor] read some of the proper names in Luke 3 (Tiberius, Itureia, Trachonitis) members of the congregation began responding, ‘My Lord! My Lord!” Taylor liked to say that the the black preachers’ formula for delivering a sermon is “start low, go slow, get high, strike fire, retire.” But, later, he said that sermon design depended on the text, the mood of the preacher, the mood of the congregation, the season of the year, and much else. P. 28: When Taylor lost his wife of 52 years, Laura Scott Taylor, he said to the congregation that he was so grateful for their kindness during the time of his loss. “But I must not dwell on that now, because sometimes the heart is so sore–incurably so–that it cannot stand the touch of memory.”